Collingwood District Collegiate Institute - Gleaner Yearbook (Collingwood, Ontario Canada)

Page 18 text:

SPEED, MAN'S DESTINATION Watching the road ahead of me and glancing once in a while at the flashing countryside through my side-window, I felt at peace as speed raced me on to my destination. Then the happiness was gone as two automobiles side-stepped me and left me gazing at their tail-lights and then I felt alone as I realized that Mr. Speed had left me to go on ahead with the others. Hwhy do people drive at this reckless speed, I wondered. 'Why do they still want to go faster? Was man born a speed demon who will never be satisfied?N Momentarily I came out of my trance as two jet planes flew over me going faster than sound, and I realized that speed is affecting almost every walk of life. In industry, transportation, sports, police protection, and war, speed is the main factor being stressed. The assembly line workers in plants get more money for every extrapractisethey produce above their quota. In sports the track and field runners practice all their life so that they can run a mile in a faster time than any other human. Then the weapons of destruction bring down a curtain on speed. It now appears that if war was declared to-day, it would be over by tomorrow as the push-button rockets and planes of to-day travel miles in half- seconds. what is the limit to how fast a human being can travel? There is no limit. But man cannot control his destination at that speed, you may say. But you are wrong. What man cannot do, a man-made machine will do it for him. A jet plane pilot is not fast enough in his reflexes to avoid an oncoming plane directly in his path, as his eyes do not see it fast enough, but that is where man's genius steps in. An electric eye in the nose of the plane, sees the oncoming crash and, in a split second changes the plane's course, while the pilot sits there and does not even have time to wonderfrom where the other plane came. Similarly other defects in man's composition are overcome and a few more hundred miles per hour are added to the speed of man. In industry, the demand for more and more speed is introduced every day. A very simple solution for this is to install more machines. But what does the human being do? He invents another machine thatggoes twice as fast and therefore makes twice as many articles in the same time. Every year more power and speed is added to the automobile. To lessen the addition of danger with the addition of more speed, new safety devices are included. In the automobile of to-day, items such as power brakes, power steering, and low pressure tires, which were accessories a few years back, have become standard equipment to make travelling and transportation both faster and safer. On certain nights if you follow the cheers of a huge crowd to some stadium, you will see that one of the favourite pastimes of a human being is to watch speed perform. A flashing hockey game, a speedy football contest, a reckless bob-sled race, or a death-defying stock-car race, any one of these, partially satisfies man's desire for speed and more speed. Nherever you look, speed lurks there in some form, for man's destination is speed. Even death seems in a hurry as life seems to speed by through the years and arrives much too soon. By: Ed. Garback XIIA Second in Upper School Essay

Page 17 text:

IQ! ar X Q M sg, W- m,g6 VI' +1 Q ' :Luv . ,I ref . TH VALUE OF HEALTH As I sit watching the steady stream of humanity pass in and out of the doors in the doctor's office, I am constantly reminded of my fortune--good health. Fortunes are generally based on wealth, mine is no exception. Though sometimes not exposed to public view, my wealth of energy is an unfailing resource. Health is an asset which cannot be overstressed. To the individual it has three main aspects--mental, physical, and emotional benefits. How often one pities the inmate of a mental institution! Constantly tormented by weird hallucinations, he presents a sad picture--now sitting forlornly with his terror-filled eyes focussed on space, now jumping up in fPigHt, now in a violent spasm of hysteria. His case is pitiful, but his future is even more so. His past, present, and future is wrapped up in the word nfearu--fear of death. Illness plays havoc with anyone's mental stability. what is more heart-breaking to any wife and mother than to see husband and father carried away by an ambulance to spend the rest of his days in an iron lung, a victim of polio? Let her be the one to tell you that the physical benefits of health can never be replaced by money, entertainment, or friends. Now she must put her children in another's care while she spends her own strength supplying their bread and upkeep. Let the man be the one to tell you that nothing can make up for long useless years imprisoned in a life-giving cell. For a man the feeling of uselessness is more depressing than a score of worries that beset one in the business world. Certainly there is no substitute for physical fitness. Emotional stability is essential for the successful completion of any task. Nervous break-downs are becoming more and more frequent because people of to-day have not learned to live with their emotions. To-day's worriers will be tomorrow's failures because they refuse to accept the truth of the adage, uworry is interest paid on trouble before it is due.H The people expect their doctors to be able to hand out a panacea to cure them, when the entire secret lies in the ability to know oneself, and then to live peaceably with that self. Many people who are mentally and physically Hperfectn fall down completely in emotional health. Hut there is another side of the picture. Five days a week scores of youth can be seen exercising vigorously during recess period at school. They present the picture of health--sound minds, sound bodies, and sound emotions. They do notvvorry about tomorrowg tomorrow will look after itself. The amazing thing to an onlooker who lacks any of these benefits is that children take their health for granted. It is theirs to enjoy, protect, and use. It is essential therefore, that they be taught the true value of health so that they may wisely consider it their greatest fortune and thereby secure for themselves a promising future. By: Virginia Chenault XIIA First in Upper School Essay

Page 19 text:

The years rolled by now with Ruth establishing.himself as one of the greatest ' 0 TC. The Babe Ruth Story ln September l9h8 death struck a great national figure innthe persfn O: Geirre Herman Ruth affectionately known to all sports lovers as :ale Ruta . lor .nree -ast years his illness was a worry to all who loved him. For a time before his serious attack he rallied and made a few brief public appearances, bu? K9 WHS H fn' pallid ghost of his former self and although fighting valiantly until the final onslaught came, the great heart stopped forever. Babe Ruth was a hungry, wistful, kid in 1906, when Brother Matthias, the teacher priest from St. Mary's Industrial School,induced his father to let him have the boy at the school. By the time seven years had rolled around he had grown up proficient in the tailors' trade which St. Mary's rad taught him, although never really happy without a baseball in his hand. When the Christmas snows of 1913 lay white in the back yards of Baltimore, Brother Matthias said to him uBy next spring you will be working outside and I will miss you.H The boy answered softly, uSt. Mary's has been good to me and so have you Brother Matthiasg you sure make a fellow feel a lot better than he really is.n quiet In the Brother's study waited Jack Dunn, manager of the Baltimore Orioles who had looked Babe over that previous summer and liked what he saw. So that spring of 1913 Babe was an oriole. By the end of the season he was a green rookie no longer. He had defeated Connie Mack's world Athletic Champion and led all International League Pitchers. Back in Boston he was riding the crest. The boys on the team called him nFancy Dann, because of his silk shirts and flannels but Brother Matthias was not worried over the boys lack of modesty for he knew under the big, bulky, flashy, exterior George had a heart and there was not one kid at St. Mary's to whom he would not have given his last silk shirt. Then Brother Matthias heard different newsg nRuthn had been taken from the pitcher's mound and turned in a great performance in left field. He had hit the longest home run in the history of baseball, a six-hundred foot blow. Then came the world's Series scandal when a few players of the Chicago white sox confessed to throwing the Serieswvith Cincinatti. The cleanest sport in history had disgraced itself. It seemed as though baseball was to be finished, but this did not affect Babe Ruth for he went on hitting home runs ending the season with fifty-nine. Wrigley Field Chicago, was the town of a new day for the great hitter. Before the game Babe had gone to see a dying boy Johnny Jackson, whose father had telephoned begging him for an autographed ball for his son. Before he left he said nJohnnyH, I'll sock a home run in centre bleachers for you, that's a promisen. with two strikes on him in the last inning he pointed to a flag-pole. Amid the uproar of booing came the crack of the bat, a home run for Johnny Jackson. attractions in baseball. May 25th, 1935 was the day he turned in shoes for the last time, a day written in black letters for baseball. has gone but to millions of kids and grown-ups alike his spirit still On his death-bed he said, nBrother Matthias, arn't kids a know people should always be more like Kid s.u Truly he Command, nSuffer the little children to come unto me, for Heaven.n By: Carol Brophy, wonderful heeded the such is the XIIA his spike Babe Ruth lives on. race? You Master's Kingdom of First in Public Speaking Contest